This invention relates to devices for the treatment of heart disease and particularly to endo arterial prosthesis, which are commonly called stents. More particularly, the invention relates to improved light curable stents and improved catheter assemblies to facilitate the insertion and implantation of light curable stents in a body lumen.
A focus of recent development work in the treatment of heart disease has been directed to endo-prosthetic devices called stents. Stents are generally tube shaped intravascular devices which are placed within a blood vessel to structurally hold it open. The device can be used to prevent restenosis and to maintain the patency of a blood vessel immediately after intravascular treatments.
Stents often require extreme flexibility so as to be capable of being transported through varying and tortuous turns and diameters of the vessel pathway prior to arriving at the desired stenotic site. Expandable stents are so designed. Typically, expandable stents are delivered in a collapsed form to the stenotic region, expanded from within by a dilation balloon, and the ability to remain expanded so as to continue holding open the vessel after the balloon has been withdrawn.
Many expandable stents, however, do not retain a fully expanded state after the balloon has been withdrawn. Many such stents have been known to recoil after the inflation procedure due to elastic properties of the stent and applied stenotic pressure. If the recoil is great enough, the stent may also, due to lack of frictional resistance holding it in place, become dislodged from its location, and migrate downstream. On such occasions, adequate lumenal flow can therefore be jeopardized. As a result, another procedure is needed to address a stent opening that has been so reduced.
Additionally, an expandable stent with plastic properties may be severely limited as to the degree of expandability of the stent from a deformed state into a permanently expanded configuration. It is therefore desirable for an expandable stent not to be so limited by its plastic properties and instead rely on different means for support when expanded beyond its ability to retain a plastically expanded shape.
There have been efforts to address the need to rigidize a stent after delivery and expansion. Some efforts have included, for example, the deposition of transformable materials in a stent wall. The mixing of epoxy components, for example, inside the wall of a stent has been heretofore disclosed. U.S. Pat. No. 5,344,444 (Glastra), discloses a stent wall formed with breakable internal partitions separating mixable epoxy components. The stent is designed to be delivered in a non-expanded state, and is thereafter subject to expansion by the dilation balloon.
According to Glastra, the expansion of the stent breaks open the partition walls allowing the epoxy components to mix, thereby hardening the resulting composition. Such stents, however, suffer the shortcoming that performance is dependant upon satisfactory formation and breaking of the partitions and the adequate intermixing of the epoxy components after the partitions have broken down.
Glastra also discloses a stent with premixed epoxy enclosed in the stent wall. However, the pre-mixing stage takes place prior to insertion of the stent into the lumenal cavity and therefore requires the stent to not only be dispatched rapidly to the lumenal site, but also expanded before the mixed epoxy hardens.
Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 5,334,201 (Cowan), discloses epoxy filled stent walls where epoxy components are partially cured prior to insertion into the body lumen. Once again, the performance of the stent is dependant on the time limitation for in vivo delivery, expansion, and rigidization of stent prior to hardening of the epoxy. If hardened too soon, the stent becomes more difficult if not impossible to deliver to the lumenal location. Should the stent reach the intended location prior to curing, expansion of the stent must take place rapidly and prior to setting of the epoxy.
Cowan also discloses the use of light curable materials such as epoxies and urethanes. However, Cowan also suggests that such materials are toxic to the body and therefore pose a health hazard prior to curing. To reduce the possibility of exposure to the body of the toxic materials, Cowan also discloses a biocompatable coating to isolate the toxic materials from contact with the body lumen. The enclosure of the toxic material, however, continues to pose the risk of toxic exposure should the material not be fully cured or by mere puncture, tearing, or improper manufacturing of the stent wall.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,766,204 (Porter et al.), suggests a stent made of fibers containing light curable material. Like Cowan, Porter also discloses that the light curable material be encapsulated in a fiber, and for increased toxicity protection, be encapsulated by a biocompatable material prior to curing. Porter suggests that the encapsulating material be biodegradable. Such a device while having certain utility, suffers from the shortcoming that the fiber construction is expensive to manufacture and, once degraded may for form interstitial gaps which may provide for intrusion of stenotic material. Additionally, like Cowan, the toxic curable material poses risk of exposure by the mere puncture, tearing, or improper manufacturing of the stent wall or incomplete curing of the material therein.
There has long existed a need for a stent which can be fully collapsed for deployment to the site of the stenosis and may be then expanded into position and efficiently and more safely be rigidized at that point. The present invention satisfies this need.
Expandable light curable stents require means for deployment and expansion. Stent delivery systems have evolved from angioplasty procedures. In typical balloon angioplasty procedures, a guiding catheter having a preformed distal tip is percutaneously introduced through the femoral artery into the cardiovascular system of a patient in a conventional Seldinger technique and advanced within the cardiovascular system until the distal tip of the guiding catheter is seated in the ostium. A guide wire is positioned within an inner lumen of a dilatation catheter and then both are advanced through the guiding catheter to the distal end thereof The guide wire is first advanced out of the distal end of the guiding catheter into the patient's coronary vasculature until the distal end of the guide wire crosses a lesion to be dilated, then the dilatation catheter having an inflatable balloon on the distal portion thereof is advanced into the patient's coronary anatomy over the previously introduced guide wire until the balloon of the dilatation catheter is properly positioned across the lesion.
Once in position across the lesion, the balloon, which is made of relatively inelastic materials, is inflated to a predetermined size with radiopaque inflation fluid at relatively high pressure (e.g., greater than 4 atmospheres) to compress the arteriosclerotic plaque of the lesion against the inside of the artery wall and to otherwise expand the inner lumen of the artery. The balloon is then deflated so that blood flow can be resumed through the dilated artery and the dilatation catheter can be removed therefrom. Further details of dilatation catheters, guide wires, and devices associated therewith for angioplasty procedures can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,323,071 (Simpson-Robert); U.S. Pat. No. 4,439,185 (Lindquist); U.S. Pat. No. 4,516,972 (Samson); U.S. Pat. No. 4,538,622 (Samson, et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 4,554,929 (Samson, et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 4,616,652 (Simpson); U.S. Pat. No. 4,638,805 (Powell); U.S. Pat. No. 4,748,982 (Horzewski, et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 5,451,233 (Yock); U.S. Pat. No. 5,458,651 (Klemm, et al.); and U.S. Pat. No. 5,507,768 (Lau, et al.) which are hereby incorporated herein in their entirety by reference thereto.
One problem characteristic of balloon angioplasty procedures is the large number of patients which are subject to restenosis in the treated artery. In the case of restenosis, the treated artery may again be subjected to balloon angioplasty or to other treatments such as by-pass surgery or stent insertion, if additional balloon angioplasty procedures are not warranted.
One method and system developed for delivering stents to desired locations within the patient's body lumen involves attaching a stent about an expandable member, such as a balloon on the distal end of a catheter, advancing the catheter through the patient's vascular system until the stent is in the desired location within a blood vessel, and then inflating the balloon to expand the stent within the blood vessel. The expandable member is then deflated and the catheter withdrawn, leaving the expanded stent within the blood vessel, holding open the passageway thereof.
In the event a light curable stent is deployed, application of light is needed to rigidize the stent prior to deflation and withdrawal of the balloon. Some means and methods to cure light curable stents can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,344,444 (Glastra); U.S. Pat. No. 5,997,570 (Ligtenberg); and U.S. Pat. No. 5,891,082 (Leone et al.).
It is desirable, however, that an apparatus used to cure light curable stents in vivo not be limited to providing multidirectional light and employing a light transmissible expansion balloon and light transmissible inflation fluid, and, alternatively not be limited to curing from within the expansion balloon. The present invention satisfies these needs.